Eurolanche

The First European Fan Club of Colorado Avalanche Since 2007

Thank you

An acknowledgement by Eurolanche President David Puchovsky to the people, who contributed to the Fan Club having the chance to celebrate its 10th birthday.

The text will be part of the upcoming book about the Fan Club.

Eurolanche wouldn’t have survived for 10 years if it wasn’t for the help of a great number of people. My biggest dream came true during a game at the Pepsi Center in December 2008, but that didn’t stop me from continuing the Eurolanche project until today. Thanks to the great amount of support from others, I never stopped believing that its worth to continue and build something the NHL has never seen before.

A big thank you goes out to all Eurolanche members, who made financial contributions during the Fan Club’s initial season. The Fan Club wouldn’t have had a professional website and domain as fast as it did if it weren’t for them.

A big thank you to Jody Robinson, Peter Budaj and Marek Svatoš, who played instrumental roles during the first Eurolanche Invasion. Jody allowed us to stay in her home for free. She also sent me several souvenirs from Colorado before the flight, which increased my motivation even further. During our stay in Colorado, she was both our host and our guide. If it weren’t for Peter Budaj and his promise of help with game tickets and behind-the-scenes passes, who knows if we would’ve even gone to Denver as an organized Eurolanche group. His interest in our group during our stay was exemplary and made us feel more at home. Thank you, Marek Svatoš, for taking us to the locker room for the first time, for an exquisite lunch and a great attitude during the entire Invasion.

I’d like to thank Jan Hejda, a great person and a big friend of ours, who didn’t only devote his time to us during his four-year stay in Colorado, but also afterwards and in Europe. His attitude towards fans could serve as an example for others. I’d also like to thank Milan Hejduk for always finding time for us, even when he’s busy with his work.

During each Eurolanche Invasion, we’ve been in contact with Colorado Avalanche and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) representatives, who helped us as much as possible. I’d like to express my gratitude to Jean Martineau, Brendan McNicholas, Ron Knabenbauer and, last but not least, to Lesley Linscott.

Not only in my name, but in the name of all Eurolanche members, I’d like to thank all Colorado Avalanche fans, who found the time for the crazy Europeans from the other side of the world, gave them a lot of autographs and took pictures with them. We really appreciate that the majority of Avalanche players were like this. Their autographs always found their way to our members, who couldn’t make the trip to the US, either in the form of competitions, or rewards to the most active ones. I’d also like to thank the coaches and all other staff members headed by Joe Sakic, who always stopped by our group.

The Eurolanche Fan Club wouldn’t be in the state it’s currently in without the help of other people. Even at the deadline for this book, our website www.eurolanche.com publishes at least three articles in Slovak/Czech per day during the regular season, which makes it the most active Colorado Avalanche fan site in the world. A big thank you goes out to the entire current editing staff, as well as to former editors, who created and continue to create content for our website and social media accounts without being paid. Their dedication, reliability and punctuality are truly exemplary.

Despite the editing staff working as one group, I’d like to single out several tenured editors in alphabetical order, because I couldn’t appraise their contributions otherwise. Braňo Bukový is one of our longest-tenured editors and he watches the majority of Avalanche games in order to write game summaries, no matter the result or team performance. Michal Hežely has the best English among all of us, which is why all our original English articles and all official material for the media, or directly for the Colorado Avalanche pass through his hands. Aside from his hard work figuring out and correcting our mediocre English, he also deserves a big thank you for the translation of this book. The role of Jakub Kantor is also irreplaceable. As a professional graphic designer with an own firm, he creates the entire graphic identity of Eurolanche and all its projects. All banners, infographics, logos, as well as flyers, guides and various other things are the fruit of his labor, which is why he deserves my gratitude. Jakub Klos is the nervous system of Eurolanche. He’s been our chief programmer since 2011. He continually improves our main website, or creates new sister websites. If it weren’t for his work as a professionally trained programmer, we would have never gotten this far. Rudolf Šerý is the vice president of Eurolanche and, aside from our betting competition Eurolanche League, has been supervising all activities connected with the functioning of Eurolanche that I can’t due to my lack of time. He also deserves a big thank you, as does our former editor Norbert Gruber and Tomáš Vnuk, who has helped me with our promotional material on several occasions.

I would like to use this opportunity to thank all friends and acquaintances of the Eurolanche Fan Club, who have supported us throughout the years in many different ways. Either with regular meetings in the US or Europe, media reports about our activities, but most of all, with words of support, which motivate us to continue to be even better. In alphabetical order, I would like to thank Josef Cafourek, Adrian Dater, Nicholas Daviscourt and his family, Terry Frei, Mike Chambers, Andy Kaya, Kyle Keefe, Conor McGahey, Peter McNab, Marc Moser, Petr Novotný, Nicole Sharpe and Jake Schroeder. A group thank you goes out to Filip, Petr and their team from the Czech restaurant Sobo151 in Denver, to Taylor, Gabe and their team from the official Avalanche shop Altitude Authentics, and to Pat, Debra and other Pepsi Center employees.

I’d like to thank all journalists, writers and reporters, who wrote about Eurolanche during the past 10 years. If it weren’t for their willingness to publish our story, significantly fewer people would know about Eurolanche.

A big thank you goes out to all Colorado Avalanche fans, who continue to support us. A special thank you to fans from Colorado, who gave us their game for free on several occasions and to those, who invited us to their homes. The list would be really long and I wouldn’t want to forget someone, which is why I didn’t choose to name them. I’ll remain grateful to them forever.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank my family and friends, who’ve gotten used to my regular trips to the other side of the world and aren’t scared to allow me to go away so far for so long (at least on the outside). I’d also like to thank my mother, as her attitude and benevolence allowed me to become a fan to a team on the other side of the globe and to lay the groundwork for this unique Fan Club.